Stage Details

Vote Result

Yea Votes

Nay Votes

Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to pass a committee conference report allowing parents up to 18 hours of unpaid leave from work in an academic year to attend their children's school events.

Highlights:

-Requires employers to allow employees to take leave for the purpose of attending an academic activity such as a parent teacher conference or special education meeting. This leave may be unpaid (Sec. 2).
-Mandates that this leave may not be more than eighteen hours a year and six hours in any one month (Sec. 2).
-Allows employer to require that the leave to be taken in no longer than three-hour increments (Sec. 2).
-Mandates that less than full-time employees are eligible for a percentage of time equivalent to the percentage of work they do compared to a full-time schedule (Sec. 2).
-Permits an employer to limit this leave when it will cause a halt in services or production (Sec. 2).
-Requires employees provide employer with notice at least one week in advance if possible and allows the employer to require written verification (Sec. 2).

Vote Result

Yea Votes

Nay Votes

Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to pass a committee conference report allowing parents up to 18 hours of unpaid leave from work in an academic year to attend their children's school events.

Highlights:

-Requires employers to allow employees to take leave for the purpose of attending an academic activity such as a parent teacher conference or special education meeting. This leave may be unpaid (Sec. 2).
-Mandates that this leave may not be more than eighteen hours a year and six hours in any one month (Sec. 2).
-Allows employer to require that the leave to be taken in no longer than three-hour increments (Sec. 2).
-Mandates that less than full-time employees are eligible for a percentage of time equivalent to the percentage of work they do compared to a full-time schedule (Sec. 2).
-Permits an employer to limit this leave when it will cause a halt in services or production (Sec. 2).
-Requires employees provide employer with notice at least one week in advance if possible and allows the employer to require written verification (Sec. 2).

Legislation -
Bill Passed
(House)
(35-30) -
Feb. 9, 2009(Key vote)

Vote Result

Yea Votes

Nay Votes

Vote to pass a bill that requires specific employers to provide employees with 18 hours of unpaid leave per academic year to attend school functions and academic activities with their children.

Highlights:

-Relies upon the definition of "employer" contained in the federal Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, which limits the requirements to employers that employ at least 50 employees for each working day during each of the 20 or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding calendar year (Sec. 2).
-Defines "academic activity" as meetings or conferences regarding the employee's child, including parent-teacher conferences and meetings related to special education, intervention, dropout prevention, attendance, truancy, or disciplinary issues (Sec. 2).
-Authorizes employers to require employees to take the leave for no more than three hours at a time and provide written verification of the school event that necessitated the leave one week in advance, if possible. In the case of an emergency, the employee shall provide the employer with a notice of the leave as soon as possible (Sec. 2).
-Requires employees to make a reasonable attempt to schedule academic activities outside of regular work hours, and requires schools and school districts to accommodate the schedules of employees with children enrolled in the school or school district to the best of their abilities (Sec. 2).
-Limits mandatory unpaid leave to no more than six hours per month (Sec. 2).
-Extends a portion of the unpaid leave opportunities to part-time employees depending on the percentage of a full-time schedule that the employee works (Sec. 2).
-Authorizes employees and employers to substitute paid vacation leave, sick leave, personal leave, or other paid leave for the unpaid leave required by the provisions of this Act (Sec. 2).
-Repeals the provisions of this Act on September 1, 2015 (Sec. 2).